The Holocaust

1
The Holocaust
The story of Ernest and Elisabeth Cassutto
2
Ernest Cassutto

• Born on Dec 1, 1919 in Indonesia
• Moved to Netherlands in 1934
• By 1942 he and all other Jewish people had to
  register with the Gestapo, the secret German
  police, and wear the Yellow Star of David to
  identify themselves publicly as Jews.

Yellow Star of David
3
Loss of the one you love

• In 1941 the round-up of Jewish people began and
  by 42 they were being deported and arrested.
• Ernest at this time had gotten engaged to Hetty
  Winkel. They decided to go into hiding but in
  1943 they got separated. She was found and sent
  to die at Auschwitz
• Ernest himself was found in 1944 by the Nazis

Actually building in the Auschwitz concentration
camp it has been preserved many tourists have
visited there.
The camp was surrounded by a double ring of
electrified barbed wire.
4
The Capture

• He was taken to Security Police in Rotterdam and
  questioned about his family in May of 1944.
• He was held in solitary confinement in a 5x7
  cell with a steel door that had the Yellow Star
  of David on it to identify him with.
• He was starved and only given tulip bulbs and
  sugar beets fried in grease to eat.
• He was housed with others that the Nazis labeled
  as anti-social homosexuals, pacifists,
  communists, and gypsies.
• All of which, including Ernest were bound for the
  firing squad, deportation to slave labor, or the
  extermination camps

Auschwitz seems to be quite the extermination
camp with its gas chambers and crematoriums
Firing squad to execute many Jews at once
5
Lucky Man

• Ernest expected to be included in the final
  deportation but somehow the Yellow Star of David
  got knocked off his door and he was left behind.
• He was then assigned to slave labor outside of
  Rotterdam were he befriended a member of the
  Dutch police force who ended up saving his life
  by taking his charge and the laborers into
  hiding.
• 2 days later he was reunited with his family all
  of which were lucky enough to survive.

People was given soap by arrival, and they were
told that everybody now have to take a shower
That way people went to die with no resistance
and panic. SS Unterscharfuhrer Franz Suchomel
It is estimated 1.5 million people died in the
gas chambers good thing Ernest was lucky enough
to escape this torture.
6
Elisabeth Rodrigues Cassutto

• Elisabeth was born in 1931 and in 1942 went into
  hiding with her parents and brother Henry.
• Before that she attended secondary school in
  Amsterdam with Anne Frank.
• They attended this school, because there was a
  full-scale segregation of Dutch Jews in public
  places beginning in 1940 with Nazi occupation in
  Holland.

7
In Hiding

• While in hiding they shared a 2 room attic with
  anther Jewish family for 11 months.
• The children were not allowed to move around from
  8 a.m. to 5 p.m. for fear of being found by the
  passers by and the people who used the building
  for business.
• To keep the kids occupied Elisabeth's mom offered
  school lessons and they played games.

Im guessing their living space looked cramped
like this.
8
You Can Run But You Cant Hide

• Abraham (Ellys father) got news that their
  hiding spot was going to be discovered so he and
  the family made one of many midnight runs to a
  new destination.
• 1943 they stopped running. Abraham left Elly
  with a school teacher in Holland and his son in a
  nearby village. He and his wife hoped to find a
  safe place in Holland's urban centers.

Picture of Elly with (Grietje Bogaarts) adoptive
mom.

• Elly had to take on the identity of an adopted
  child and change her identity. (Elly could no
  longer exist).
• She had to be a new person with a new name,
  religion, and history.

9
Coming Out

• Elly and her brother were able to come out of
  hiding after some time.
• They would never again get the pleasure of seeing
  their parents because they were gassed in
  Auschwitz like so many others.
• Grietje became Ellys legal guardian after the
  war in 1945 and they remained close until her
  death in 1964
• Names for the Wall of Rescuers was being
  collected by the U.S.H.M.M. and Elly sent Graces
  in.

• She said, My first daughter was named after this
  woman who demonstrated the best God-given traits
  of human nature. When I see Grace, I see the
  miracle of life that was given to my mother.

10
At Last

• Elly and Ernest met at a conference of Jewish
  Christians in 1948.
• They married on April 22, 1949.
• Family immigrated to U.S. in 1952 before the
  birth of their first set of twins, followed by
  another set.
• Ernest became a Pastor in Maryland and Elly a
  teacher at a local school.